Public Safety

Virginia State Police responded to an accident involving a Carroll County school bus on Tuesday morning.
State Trooper Shane Kinney responded to the call on Pipers Gap Road, just west of Mallory Road near the Lil’ Country Store. According to Kinney, the school bus was approaching a stop to pick up children when a Chevrolet pickup truck operated by Charles Alderman, 44, of Galax, slid across the center line and struck the bus. “He was approaching the bus and was preparing to stop when he slid across the center line,” he said.

WOODLAWN — Virginia State Police, Carroll County deputies and rescue agencies assisted at the scene of a motor vehicle accident on Sept. 20 involving three juveniles.
According to State Trooper Charlie Delp, the youths were traveling on Coulson Church Road in a 2001 Chrysler Town & Country Cruiser, en route to a church meeting, when the driver took a curve too fast and lost control of the vehicle. “He overcorrected, came across the highway, went over the embankment on the left side of the highway and struck several trees,” Delp said.

The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles warns the public to be wary of companies that call with offers of cheaper insurance rates based on information from your DMV record.
DMV does not sell insurance, solicit the sale of insurance, or release driver information for marketing purposes.
“A few of our customers have called us to let us know they have received automated messages from insurance companies saying they are entitled to a lower insurance rate based on information from their DMV records,’” said DMV spokesperson Sunni Brown.

Galax police referred three youths to the Juvenile Court Service Unit on Sept. 14, following a burglary at a property that belongs to Vaughan-Bassett Furniture in the city.
An automated fire alarm was received by the Galax Police Department that day, according to Police Chief Rick Clark. Responding officers, along with members of the Galax Volunteer Fire Department, discovered that someone had entered the property and activated fire hoses, which caused the alarm to go off.

As enrollment for “Obamacare” begins in less than two weeks, scammers are swarming around consumers hoping to take advantage of growing confusion over the new health care bill.
The Better Business Bureau Serving Western Virginia warns consumers to be alert to scammers pretending to be government officials who use enrollment into Obamacare to steal consumers’ identities.

Virginia State Police are still investigating a series of wrecks Saturday on Interstate 77 in Carroll County that resulted in multiple injuries and one fatality.
Police blamed low visibility and weather for setting off the chain of events on the historically dangerous section of highway. A driver from Ohio died at the scene.
According to a news release, state police were called to the scene of the accidents at 10:51 a.m., in the northbound lanes of I-77 at the 9 mile marker on top of Fancy Gap Mountain.